A Piece of My Heart
by Toonksbell43
Summary: IRON MAN 3 SPOILERS! Tony has just had the surgery that removes the shrapnel, but now he is acting strange... what will Pepper do to handle all of this? Read and review please!


Authors note: This all begins at the end of Iron Man 3. This is just something I thought up when I saw some of the ending scenes. Please read and review! This is my first fic so be nice :O I do not own any of these characters or situations, just the ideas J

I starred through the glass at him as the doctors swarmed around him. My heart was racing and I felt a few tears run down my face. I saw him look up at me from the operating bed he was lying on and smiled slightly. I waved and then they put the mask over him so that he would fall into a deep sleep.

This procedure was frightening. I know it may be what he wants to do, but it scares me to know that he may not make it out. And that this is a new leaf he has turned on life. Removing the shrapnel and the arc reactor is a huge step in a new direction in not only his, but also our lives together.

He is a brave man I know he will get through this no matter what and that I will be by his side through it all.

I then moved away from the glass and turned to Rhodey with a sad look. He hugged me silently and then we turned to go back out to the waiting room.

Sitting there for those long two and a half hours was torture. Rhodey kept me company, and we went to go see Happy in his room. However, nothing could distract me from the thought of Tony lying on that operating table.

Finally the doctor came out and informed us that Tony was out of surgery and in recovery and that everything had gone smooth and as planned. My heart fluttered and I smiled as I walked back to his room.

There he was all bandaged up lying there. It made me kind of sad seeing him that way and knowing what it was for. He seemed to be pretty out of it still so I decided I would sit and wait for him to wake up.

I took his hand into mine and smiled when I felt his steady pulse beating against mine. I started to think about all the things that had happened and I felt a bit over whelmed. I was injected with a body empowering serum that I very well could have died from. I lived through it along with not only killing Killian, but also saving Tony. That was the most important thing. That Tony was safe now. I sighed a breath of relief. The shrapnel were gone out of his body, Tony was safe, and now the arc reactor would no longer cause a problem.

"I love you Tony." I whispered to him and kissed his cheek.

It was about another hour until I saw his eyes start to flicker open and smiled.

"Tony?" I asked when he gently opened his eyes. "Tony I'm right here, everything's okay."

He slowly turned his head towards me and looked at me with big brown eyes. I smiled at him and a tear fell down my eye. I was so glad he was okay.

"Pep." He said groggily and tried to smile slightly. His hand realized that it was in mine and he squeezed it.

"Oh Tony." I smiled and stood up to bend over and kiss him strongly on the forehead and then the lips. "How do you feel?"

"Different, but good. Thank you Pepper."

"For what?"

"Giving me a reason to want to live, and a be a better man than I was before. Without you none of this would have ever have been possible. I love you." He said and starred into my eyes gently.

I smiled at him and kissed him on the cheek.

It was a few weeks later that Tony finally got released. Everything was now good again. We decided that until we found somewhere to actually live or have something built, that we would stay in Stark tower for a while.

Tony, despite my protest, insisted on working on some project he had going. Four days out of the hospital and the guy thinks he can go start tinkering with his toys again. He amazes me sometimes.

He wouldn't, however, tell me what he was working on.

"In due time my dear you will see." He said one day when I asked him what he had been doing. He just smiled sweetly at me and then pulled me close before we fell asleep.

It was odd not having the arc reactor glowing at night and not hearing the hum of it running when I fell asleep. His chest honestly felt so different without it being there. I both hated and loved the fact. Loved it because I could now feel the expanse of his broad chest without a big metal thing in my way. Hate because it was a part of him in an odd way. That was the Tony that I had fallen for in the first place. The one that changed and that had figured out that he was so close to death that he had to change something in his life. I was honestly scared that he would switch back to his old ways.

"What are you doing?" I asked at two a.m. when I walked downstairs because of a large crashing noise.

"Well, you see I was fixing something. I really can't be bothered right now can you go back to bed?" He asked and I frowned a bit. I told myself that he must have just been cranky because he stayed up so late.

However, his blow off-ish mood didn't just stop there and I was starting to get worried.

"What do you want I'm busy?" he asked when I walked downstairs to great him like I always did when I came home. The rude response took me back.

"Nothing… I'm just going to… leave and go upstairs…" I said awkwardly not knowing what to do.

I ran upstairs and started crying for a good few hours. This is how things continued for the next few weeks since he had been home and without the arc reactor.

I was scared for the future and what may come of it. I was scared that I may never get the Tony I love back...


End file.
